COMMON ATTACK PATTERN ENUMERATION AND CLASSIFICATIONLive MITRE record

CAPEC-630

TypoSquatting

An adversary registers a domain name with at least one character different than a trusted domain. A TypoSquatting attack takes advantage of instances where a user mistypes a URL (e.g. www.goggle.com) or not does visually verify a URL before clicking on it (e.g. phishing attack). As a result, the user is directed to an adversary-controlled destination. TypoSquatting does not require an attack against the trusted domain or complicated reverse engineering.

Abstraction

Detailed

Typical severity

Medium

Likelihood of attack

Low

Understand the attack

What is this attack pattern?

An adversary registers a domain name with at least one character different than a trusted domain. A TypoSquatting attack takes advantage of instances where a user mistypes a URL (e.g. www.goggle.com) or not does visually verify a URL before clicking on it (e.g. phishing attack). As a result, the user is directed to an adversary-controlled destination. TypoSquatting does not require an attack against the trusted domain or complicated reverse engineering.

Execution flow

How does the attack proceed, step by step?

1

Explore

Determine target website

The adversary first determines which website to impersonate, generally one that is trusted and receives a consistent amount of traffic.

Techniques used

  • Research popular or high traffic websites.
2

Experiment

Impersonate trusted domain

In order to impersonate the trusted domain, the adversary needs to register the TypoSquatted URL.

Techniques used

  • Register the TypoSquatted domain.
3

Exploit

Deceive user into visiting domain

Finally, the adversary needs to deceive a user into visiting the TypoSquatted domain.

Techniques used

  • Execute a phishing attack and send a user an e-mail convincing the user to click on a link leading the user to the TypoSquatted domain.
  • Assume that a user will incorrectly type the legitimate URL, leading the user to the TypoSquatted domain.

Requirements

What does the attack require?

Prerequisites

  • An adversary requires knowledge of popular or high traffic domains, that could be used to deceive potential targets.

Skills required

  • Low: Adversaries must be able to register DNS hostnames/URL’s.

Resources required

Not stated in the MITRE record.

Impact

What does a successful attack lead to?

Other

Affected scopes: Other

Defence

How is it prevented and mitigated?

1
Authenticate all servers and perform redundant checks when using DNS hostnames.
2
Purchase potential TypoSquatted domains and forward to legitimate domain.

Real world

MITRE example instances

Example instance 1Detail
An adversary sends an email, impersonating paypal.com, to a user stating that they have just received a money transfer and to click the given link to obtain their money. However, the link the in email is paypa1.com instead of paypal.com, which the user clicks without fully reading the link. The user is directed to the adversary's website, which appears as if it is the legitimate paypal.com login page. The user thinks they are logging into their account, but have actually just given their paypal credentials to the adversary. The adversary can now use the user's legitimate paypal credentials to log into the user's account and steal any money which may be in the account. TypoSquatting vulnerability allows an adversary to impersonate a trusted domain and trick a user into visiting the malicious website to steal user credentials.